Anatomical researches on the deviations of the nasal septum : study of the difficulties which they occasion in operations, and especially in the catheterization of the eustachian tube, explanation of a new method for overcoming them / by B. Loewenberg.

  • Lœwenberg, B. (Benjamin), 1836-
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomical researches on the deviations of the nasal septum : study of the difficulties which they occasion in operations, and especially in the catheterization of the eustachian tube, explanation of a new method for overcoming them / by B. Loewenberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    there are in certain cases more complicated and more irregu- lar deformities, sometimes to such a degree as to defy all description. If horizontal deviations are manifestly due to malforma- tions, I have, on the contrary, seen a certain number of vertical deviations which proceeded from traumatic causes, such as a fall, or a blow upon the nose dating from early childhood. Perhaps the irregular deviations which I have just mentioned may also be of traumatic origin. II.—ROLE OF DEVIATIONS OF THE NASAL SEPTUM IN SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS, AND ESPECIALLY IN THE CATHETERIZATION OF THE EUSTACHIAN TUBE. In analyzing exactly the importance of the deviations of the septum narium, it seems to me that the injurious influ- ence which they may exercise in regard to the functions of the nasal fossae has been exaggerated, whereas enough con- sideration is not given to the impediments they often occa- sion in the diagnosis and the treatment of affections of these cavities. In regard to the first point, it is thought that these mal- formations may considerably impede respiration and pho- nation. On this subject, I call attention to the necessity of distinguishing between the two groups of deviations which I have established above. If it be supposed that the horizontal deviations can op- pose themselves to the passage of air, so far as to hinder these two physiological actions, it must not be forgotten that the aerial circulation, although diminished in one half the nose (by reason of the convexity of the deflected sep- tum), is therefore all the more free in the other, on account of its enlargement by the concavity of the septum. There is therefore compensation. It is otherwise with vertical deviations; here there can be no question of compensation, for this deformity narrows one of the nasal fossae from top to bottom, to the degree of closing it almost entirely in cer- tain cases, without the other being widened on that account, at least at the place where the fold begins. Now, it suffices,